Sara appoints Densing as DepEd infrastructure program chief

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte has tapped her chief of staff in the Department of Education (DepEd) to take charge of programs related to school infrastructure and facilities.

Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III, a former undersecretary at the Department of the Interior and Local Government, has been with the DepEd since the new administration assumed office on June 30 last year.

Densing’s previous designation at the education agency was chief of staff and undersecretary.

In a department order dated Jan. 9, Duterte revised the designation of DepEd undersecretaries and assistant secretaries in charge of different organizational strands.

The directive established a new strand called School Infrastructure and Facilities (SIF) and designated Densing as the undersecretary in-charge.

The agency’s School Infrastructure Program Management Office and Education Facilities Division, which was previously under the administration strand, will now be under SIF.

Duterte also designated the SIF strand as DepEd’s representative to several inter-agency bodies, including the Anti-Terrorism Council, National Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, Emergency Assistance for Reconstruction and Recovery of Marawi and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

The new strand is in line with Duterte’s commitment to address backlogs in school buildings and facilities.

In her latest order, the Vice President also merged the former legislative affairs and partnerships strand with legal affairs office, to be headed by Undersecretary Jose Arturo de Castro and Assistant Secretary Amanda Marie Nograles.

Undersecretary Gerard Chan, who previously headed the legislative affairs and partnerships strand, will now take charge of the procurement strand along with Assistant Secretary Omar Alexander Romero.

Procurement used to be under the administration strand, which is still headed by Undersecretary Kristian Ablan and Assistant Secretary Christopher Lawrence Arnuco.

Meanwhile, Duterte renamed the former Governance and Field Operations strand to simply Operations, to be headed by Undersecretary Revsee Escobedo and Assistant Secretaries Francis Cesar Bringas and Dexter Galban.

The former curriculum and instruction strand is now called Curriculum and Teaching, still headed by Undersecretary Gina Gonong and Assistant Secretaries Alma Ruby Torio and G.H. Ambat.

Undersecretaries Gloria Jumamil-Mercado and Annalyn Sevilla will remain in charge of the Human Resources and Organizational Development and Finance strands, respectively.

“The foregoing designations notwithstanding, the Secretary shall retain the authority and responsibility for the exercise of the mandate of DepEd, and for the discharge of its powers and functions vested by law, in line with her power of supervision and control over the DepEd, and her overall authority over the operations of the DepEd,” read the order.

Duterte will be assisted by members of her immediate staff, led by lawyer Sunshine Fajarda and DepEd spokesman Michael Poa.